


Rumours

by chasing_the_sterek



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: BAMF Merlin, Character Study, Gen, Protective Merlin, is this a character study?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 13:04:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6196165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasing_the_sterek/pseuds/chasing_the_sterek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin's well aware of all of the rumours about him that fly around Camelot like leaves in the wind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rumours

**Author's Note:**

> This is a oneshot, and probably a rubbish one at that, but sue me, I was bored and my sister and I were binge-watching season one.

It's well-known that Merlin isn't brawny or strong-looking at all. He's stronger than he looks, everyone knows, but he can still often be seen wrestling a bucketful of fresh water back up to the castle and yanking stubbornly at the reins of a mulish horse.

All sorts of gossip about all sorts of people travel like wildfire in Camelot - villagers whisper hurriedly to servants in secluded corridors and busy streets, servants mutter to royalty and those in higher classes than them. News spreads. Gossip flares up left, right, and center, and while some pieces die out quickly _(Gwen's a witch, did you know, yes, she's being sentenced today, poor girl, I heard she just wanted to help her father)_ others stay lit for months, some even bleeding into years.

Merlin is often a hot topic.

Ever since his first day, when he faced up to Arthur to help his manservant without knowing he was the prince, he's been one, ladies excitedly telling stories of his antics to one another over washing and cooking and other chores and kids spinning tales of Merlin, the Great And Powerful.

(Merlin thinks it's amusing that they call him that without any knowledge of his destiny or even his magic at all.)

Merlin doesn't mind, honestly.

Some of it's good. People advise one another to go to him if they have a problem, because he often resolves it quickly and easily and kindly, without any judgement, and yet in the same breath they warn one another not to get on his bad side because he can go from bright and cheerful to borderline murderous in a split second. Orphans tell stories of his generosity, Gwen had told him once, of how he gives out apples and sometimes brings down meats for them and feeds them if they're hungry. Starving children flock to him whenever he goes to the markets. Four-year-olds know his face even before they can recognise their king. Excitable kids surround him like a constantly-shifting sea of children.

Some of the rumours are bad. Merlin pays little to no heed to these: to the rumours about him plotting to overthrow Arthur, to the ones about his dark plans to destroy Albion before it can be built. He ignores the ones about him being secretly evil and just laughs when a rumour springs up that he cast spells on people he doesn't like to give them the plague (he'd had a lot of fun, with that one, wiggling his fingers overdramatically and pulling ridiculous faces at little kids to make them giggle instead of cower away).

He generally just lets the rumours come and go as takes their fancy, but there's one he refuses to let die; one that, even if he were not to uphold it, he thinks would still stay, stubbornly stuck in place, a sentence repeated nearly every day.  
 _  
If you hurt someone that boy loves,_ the rumours say, _then all forces of hell come down upon you._

This rumour is Merlin's age-old friend, in a way. It follows him wherever he goes, originating in Ealdor as he grew up there, settling in Camelot not even half a month after he does, plastering itself to the places he stays in for more than three weeks.

This piece of gossip has both protected from and put in danger. 

One week Gwen is almost raped, and he saves her. The same rapists attempt to get to Gaius as revenge, but this time he's even more ready before, even more deadly, and there's no chance. The men are all lying on the floor in varying states from simply unconscious to nearly dead before Arthur even gets wind of the incident (and he'd been halfway to the physician's chambers at the time anyway).

Bandits attack Arthur. A tree branch mysteriously falls on them not even half a breath later.

A noblewoman from another noble family mocks Gwaine for not being of noble blood. Merlin doesn't kill her, but the majority of her wealth disappears overnight, with a note left in her barely-adorned bedroom saying _I am from your own city, not Camelot. You will never find me, but I am watching._ There is a large manhunt for the thief, but they are never found, and the noblewoman is forced to beg food off of the very peasants she once mocked.

An assassin, one world-renowned for never missing and never failing a mission, suddenly can't calibrate his crossbow or pull his bowstring back enough or move his legs or draw his sword to slice Arthur's neck. He's caught and hanged, but that bit is Arthur, not Merlin.

The whole city of Camelot knows who Merlin's friends are. Everyone, from the lowest peasant to Arthur himself, knows the boundaries between teasing and fun and things that are less so.

People assume it's not Merlin - he's there, right there on his horse or by Arthur's side or in a completely different part of the castle, not in any position to cut down branches or paralyse terrifying assassins or steal Lady Glashade's wealth.

Merlin's okay with that. Being underestimated is one of his key pieces of armour in battle. His enemies thinks he's just an ordinary servant boy, and therefore adjust their fighting style to suit such a person: they don't expect sudden crashes to distract them or bursts of fire from previously-dormant torches.

Sometimes Merlin sees a flash of understanding pass through their eyes, and he knows they've figured it out, but they can't call him out because Arthur's probably never even entertained the thought that Merlin is an all-powerful sorcerer and the knights would probably just laugh. Gaius might smile secretively, like the strange (but loveable) old man he is. Gwen might giggle. They'll all probably dismiss the person as insane or drunk and then be on their way. The very idea of someone attempting to get Arthur to believe that Merlin's a magician is hilarious. Merlin lets amusement and challenge twinkle in his eyes in these moments, in these instances when his enemies realise who they're really dealing with, because the challenge never goes attempted, and he knows this person will just be another link in the world's most hilarious chain of enemies he has to overcome to get to Albion.

He sometimes wants to tell someone about it.

But he doesn't.

**Author's Note:**

> BONUS:
> 
> Merlin doesn't know that Gaius told the Knights about his magic ages ago. He doesn't know that Arthur figured it out the very first time he used it in a bandit attack. He doesn't know that Gwen saw his weird light-thing from when he'd been poisoned as she spied through a crack in the door, and worked it out after that.
> 
> He doesn't know that everyone just likes watching him fumble for excuses.


End file.
